The TikTokization of Everything

Over the past decade, two primary forces have powered technology: mobile and cloud.

Major categories—dating, real estate, job searches—may find themselves completely upended by better use of artificial intelligence. Why swipe endlessly on Tinder when AI can surface your perfect match?

Perhaps no use of AI is more visible to more people than TikTok’s For You Page. They have pioneered using AI to create incredible recommendations.

What we’re seeing is AI emerge from the infrastructure layer to the application layer—the parts of technology that everyday people interact with.

One major reason for this is the quality of SHEIN's recommendations. Just as Bytedance anticipates the content you’ll want to watch, SHEIN anticipates the clothes you’ll want to buy. SHEIN is to commerce what Bytedance is to content.

The major consumer applications of AI will lean heavily into sophisticated recommendations that anticipate your wants and desires before you even know them—in the same way that the TikTok For You Page has shown people that they’re gay before they themselves have even arrived at that realization.

Perhaps the most compelling—and the most likely—force to power tech in the 2020s is artificial intelligence. AI has improved dramatically within the past few years.

Another example is SHEIN, who have done the same for commerce.

SHEIN’s explosion is nothing short of remarkable: SHEIN has grown over 100% every year for eight straight years (!), and its latest private market valuation makes it worth more than Zara and H&M combined.

Imagine a company that combs your camera roll and—with stunning accuracy—recommends a new wardrobe for you. Or the company simply asks you to link your Instagram account, and then it digests every like and follow you’ve ever made to deliver incredibly accurate, incredibly personalized fashion recommendations.